Do snails poop?

[Jerad81]

I'm really hoping this is a stupid question but I feel like I need to ask. This morning as my lights were starting to turn on I noticed one of my snails shooting some kind of white liquid out of it's end opposite it's mouth (basically where it's butt would be). In the year I've had my tank I've never witnessed this happen before and it really caught me off guard. Looking at the snail it appears to be perfectly fine and healthy but I've recently had a cleaner shrimp die on me that looked and acted perfectly fine and healthy as well. Unfortunately the lights are still turning on so they are REALLY blue and I couldn't get a good pic of it yet. 

I will also note, just in case it's important, that I have been battling with very high phosphate and nitrate levels the last few weeks. I have managed to get my phosphates down to somewhere between 0.5-1 ppm recently but my nitrates are still way off the chart. I've been doing 25% water changes every week for the last few weeks (I just did one yesterday) and have also been using those Chemipure Elite packets to help absorb and remove the phosphates.

Was I just in the right place at the right time to witness a snail pooping for the first time or is this something else that I need to address/worry about?

[Jerad81]

Ok, I've been watching this snail since I witnessed this event and I'm now convinced it's not just pooping. It's still shooting this white substance out from under it's shell in bursts that immediately dissolves into the water. Is my snail actually dissolving or is this some kind of sickness they get that I should get it out of my tank before it spreads?

[mitten_reef]

do we have to have the birds and the bees talk?

[Cannedfish]

5 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

do we have to have the birds and the bees talk?

"See when a mommy snail and a daddy snail really love each other..."

[Jerad81]

10 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

do we have to have the birds and the bees talk?

 

4 minutes ago, Cannedfish said:

"See when a mommy snail and a daddy snail really love each other..."

I guess that thought never even occurred to me! It's good to know that really was a stupid question after all, just not quite the way I expected it to be lol. Hopefully this will fill my "here's your sign" quota for the year! Thank you for pointing this out to me, I do appreciate it.

[Clown79]

They do poop but it sounds like spawning.

[DISQUALIFIED-QQ]

Yes! Everyone poops! They even made a book on it!

 

It is not uncommon in the invertebrate world that animals do something called broadcast spawning. That's when an individual releases gametes into the water column in hopes that the other gametes mix with it and make fertile embryos (these embryos are size of plankton). Usually this event is coordinated when either male or female excretes hormones as a chemical marker saying "It's time."

 

Brings a whole new meaning to...something in the water. Maybe it's the exact meaning.